


End Game

by Napstyle



Category: Angerme, Country Girls, Hello!Project, JuiceJuice, Kobushi Factory, Morning Musume., Tsubaki Factory
Genre: Action/Adventure - JRPG Style, Alternate Universe - Fantasy, Die in Game Die in Real Life, F/F
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-07-12
Updated: 2018-07-15
Packaged: 2019-06-09 07:00:08
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 2
Words: 4,835
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15261948
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Napstyle/pseuds/Napstyle
Summary: One last Harocon practice became a chaotic pursuit to escape a brand-new world.





	1. Game Start

The game started as soon as the practice room had blacked out. Ayumi’s eyes fluttered open to a dark screen. It was retro, she knew it obviously through her small gaming experiences with Haruka and Masaki of course. Yet it seemed different. It was the only thing she could see. Ayumi couldn’t see her hands, her body, nothing, just the dark screen, and the Start screen. Flashing in bright green, turning round and round until she saw the small message above the text. It was a similar phrase to when they would play minigames as a group. Game start.

“Game start?” 

The screen blinked white. Then green. Then red. Until every color she could possibly imagine flashed immediately on the screen, blacking out her vision until she began to feel. Her muscles began to move again much to her relief. Ayumi had an issue with trying to open her eyes through the blinding experience. Yet when she did, she was amazed. 

The olden coliseum in the great, bright sunlight. It was almost as if it were ruins, towering over her. Then more portals, looking as bright as the startup was, making figures of other girls like herself. She began to see the figures of her fellow Hello!Project members, all confused, yet excited. They were thrilled, yet there were skeptical glances. Ayumi ran immediately to the first group member she saw, Ikuta Erina. The other girl had her arms crossed, so confused yet playing cool through it all. They were all in weird tunics, like the ones they would normally see in adventurer games like Dragon Quest. Though, their tunics were in their member colors. Erina seemed disatisfied with her’s, looking down at her outfit with an expression very close to genuine disgust. 

“I hate it, wrong shade” She snapped, her bangs covered her eyes mysteriously, looking up to see Ayumi. Ayumi met her eyes shockingly, to see that her own eyes were the same neon green. Erina had flinched as well, people around them already noticing in shock. Perhaps her own eyes were her color as well, seeing the glow on her tunic, everyone else having the same glow. A screen showed up in front, it seemed thin like glass, a visual projection. A notification showed that she had been rewarded a badge, her group’s logo, and a level up screen. To level one. 

“Congratulations.” 

All the participants looked up to the source of the booming, calm voice. There were five figures, all seeming to be spazzing out of reality, they had no color. It was as if they were glitching, broken. 

“This is a simulation. The management has commenced this experiment to determine the new group with fierceness, a will to survive in the harsh idol world.” 

Estranged murmurs, mumbles, exploded throughout the arena, some panicks from younger members. Kenshuusei as well, getting riled over the thought of debuting. 

“This is a simple game. Travel to and defeat all five Bosses is your goal. There are five realms, we have simulated monsters and great beasts to defeat and create gear.”

Shouts came from the clearing, excited as if they were in a theme park.

“Like a Hunter game!”

“I’m an anime character now!”

A loud bang silenced the excitement. It was almost too silent. Ayumi began to bite her nails at the thought of how long she would be there, how her family would be. It would be long, to defeat all these bosses without any battle experience. 

“Here are the rules.” 

The screen began to list off what seemed like five commandments, all showing after they were spoken by one of the five, what she assumed Bosses. 

“If your Health Points reach zero, you die both in the game, and in reality.” 

Screams. Panic. Thunderous panic had yelled across the area. She saw her groupmates, other group members, all running to their closest friends beginning to cry. 

“If you are found trespassing into forbidden areas, the consequence is immediate execution.” 

“The use of hacking is forbidden, this will result in immediate death.”

“Killing amongst yourselves is allowed and absolutely permitted. Survival at all costs is the main purpose of the game.”

“Only seven individuals, either individual or in teams, will pass. This team may either choose to save themselves, killing all other players, or save all remaining players, killing themselves.” 

It seemed the panic only grew larger at that point. Everyone seemed to already gather together. Erina stayed with Ayumi though, it was endearing. She saw a purple shirt move through the panicked crowds and tug onto Ayumi’s shoulder. It was Miki, her groupmate.

“Hey, um, Oh my god, can I stick with y’all?” 

The shy girl was scratching the back of her head and shifting all over the place. Her words were so nervous and jumbled between languages. As expected of the awkward Nonaka, in response, Ayumi held her close. Erina nodded in solidarity. 

“For now, we’ll be three.”

The Grandmaster hit their shoe against the flooring, banging through the echoing walls again. 

“If you fail to meet these rules, one of your five leaders will die.” 

It seemed the panic could never stop. She could see members looking for their leaders so frantically. She could see Kanazawa-san in tears on the ground. Nakanishi-san wailing as she limped and struggled to stand. Even Erina began to twitch slightly as she heard Hamachan’s screaming, Risa’s sobs. It was a pain. A true pain to see their subleaders in so much anguish and pain. It felt like death had creeped into their lives and stolen their hearts. 

The glitches disappeared, screens disappeared. Only a robotic voice began to ring through the arena as she and everyone else were surrounded in blinding light.  
—  
Teleporting to Main Township, Kingdom of Shiruvan, Boss One...  
—

After the loading screen had passed, her eyes opened from the dark and into a dimly lit room with candles. It was a small, worn cottage almost. An in-game inn it would possibly be described as. She saw the screen pop up whenever she would make some movement with her right hand, knowing how a phone worked, it wasn’t much trouble. Ayumi lifted herself off of the soft bed with much to wonder on how she got there, what to do from now. Menus were shown, such as equip, inventory, rules, all the basics. Her instincts opened the map first. The region she was in had green all over it, the Kingdom of Shiruvan directly in the middle with her game icon, a blue musume badge, indicating her location. On the far right was a select region of deep dark forests, an exclamation labeled BOSS ONE. Rustling in the far corner of the room startled her, jumping in her seat on the bed. 

“Waaaaaaaaaaah. Why can’t I quuuuuuit.” 

Probably Masaki. Squeaky voice, annoying, mentally deranged. All the flailing must have fueled her inference even more to the point of truth when the oddball went straight up and stared at her. 

“Ayu. Yumi. Ayuyumi. Why- Does- Why are you heree!?” 

Idiot. Probably a mastermind in the making yet she was still an idiot to the logical Ayumi. “I was, spawned, here Maachan. You were too. Go back to sleep and think about not dying.” It was too late, the childish Masaki was already up and jumping on her bed. “Okay, Masaki, equip your basic stuff, we’re going out to find Miki and Ikuta-san.” 

“Mikitaaaaan!!!!” Masaki screeched, Ayumi’s ears would have bled if she weren’t directing her voice in every other direction than Ayumi’s. It was painful, really. They went down the stairs from the inn room and met the clerk. It was a strange conversation. The clerk was old, a man, his beard greyed and outfit worn. 

“Welcome. How may I help you.”

Ayumi smiled politely. “Well we’d like to ask some quest-“

“Invalid response.” The man’s expression was creepily blank, and returned to its original, cheerful state. “Welcome, how may I help you?” Masaki was very creeped out by the scene and pulled Ayumi outside immediately, it seemed everyone else woke up early and already started crowding up in equipment stores. Some already returned leveled up. Namely, the Tsubaki Factory, a group of them. Yumeno smiled at them and walked over in iron gear, brandishing her axe on her back. 

“Hey! Sato-san, Ishida-san. Nakanishi-san took charge and sent us out to train in groups. Killing slimes is easy, easy levels, and we’ll be challenging the boss very soon! We are confident we can beat them, for Riko-tan’s sake.” 

Ayumi blankly stared at the enthusiasm, it was far too strange for her yet. It wasn’t strange for Yumeno to be, excited and confident. She was doing it for her leader’s sake, which wasn’t very surprising since everyone’s shared goal was to reach that point. 

“How did you get ahold of that axe there?” 

The warrior’s eyes lit up as she opened her menu screen and turned it for Ayumi to see, pointing at her badge icon. “Here!” She turned it over to reveal an axe. “This means that I am of the Warrior Class. Which is mainly the axe and other heavy weapons. Pretty cool.” 

Masaki followed suit with opening the menu, flipping her Musume icon to reveal two daggers. “I’m an assassin!!! Fear me!!” Her giggles were so amused and satisfied, bright eyes watching Ayumi flip her’s over to reveal a lance. 

“That’s a good one, lancer class sounds pretty good. Lances, you could also use a shield.” Yumeno’s bright eyes were so enlightening to her, it was reassuring, everything will be okay, they told. She waved off, joining back to their group, Masaki had run off too. She looked around the dusty clearing to see old medieval buildings surrounding her, it was cute in a sense. Erina had come, in similar garb to Yumeno yet looking buffer, her axe was much larger. 

“Let’s get gear, lancer is it?” The Warrior motioned for Ayumi to follow, which she did, stumbling over her feet as she wasn’t as used to the game as all of the early risers. In fact, all of Hello!Project were early risers, maybe they hadn’t slept through the load out of boredom. Looking up at the bright blue sky, she saw birds, life, trees, and a lively town. It was almost as if they had visited Europe again as a group. The two walked into the armory, crowded, yet seeing the armless Ayumi they had backed out of the way, possibly out of predetermined seniority. She saw the room of armor, swords, bows, axes, their many variations. Until they went to a section for the lancer class which she saw her choices. A halberd, classic lance, trident, and of course the naginata. 

“Oi.. I kinda like that one.” Ayumi spoke, shifting from side to side as she admired the shape. It was almost as if it was made for her, the style of course. The weapon itself was just plain iron on a blue hilt. Erina grunted as she nodded and took it to the NPC for purchase, sending it to Ayumi. 

“Teleport to the mining fields aye? Miki should be there, she said she’d be.” Ayumi was handed a small crystal, like an ice cube but yellow in color. It was shiny, like a gemstone. Eventually she did try to use it, gaining unsure stares from other players, until she shook it. The loading screen turned up again, boring her out, yet it was faster this time. Through a flash of light she was under the harsh heat of the mining sun. 

Instantly she saw Miki turn to her after defeating a small hog. “Oh, hey! Ishida-san.” The awkwardly stout girl trotted to Ayumi, shortsword in hand. She already seemed to be adept with it. “Ikuta-san went into the mine already, I’ve called Sato-san, Maria, and Akanechin, so they’ll be joining us after they do.. What they do!” Oddly, she was excited to be placed in such a life or death game, Ayumi on the other hand was still anxious. “The day-night cycle should kick in anytime, the clock says it's going to change to dusk-mode soon.” She pointed to the clock on her own menu, smiling brightly. “We will be fine, Nakanishi-san and Iikubo-san have set up a town meeting to set up a game plan! Let’s get there soon after you learn how to fight, I trust you’ll be fine.” Miki held up a crystal like her’s and saw her disappear into purple light, she couldn’t deny that the awkwardness was indeed cute. 

Ayumi then looked to the rocky clearing, broken minecarts and rails, debris filling the area. She quickly equipped her naginata and saw it form out of blue light, smiling, it was satisfying. She saw spawning slimes, slowly crouching and creeping towards one. It was a weird, quiet moment, watching the slime turn to her with the most arrogant look on its face. 

“Oh you piece of shit!” The naginata stabbed the goopy substance so much the game labeled it overkill and gave her bonus prizes. Slime, slime, and a slimeball. Hopefully would be useful in the future, though probably not. Her level meter went up gradually, making her level 3. Which she then saw was enough as the sun began to go down, shaking the crystal like before, 2 more uses, and teleporting back to town square. It looked beautiful at night, lanterns hanging and lights ablaze. Though the cathedral, a majestic stone establishment up ahead, teemed with her fellow idols, running up to greet. 

“Ishida-san, hello!” Her hand was far too professionally shaken by Murota Mizuki herself, Murotan, Ayumi was quite fond with her already. “Glad you could make it, really, it’s a real pleasure to have you!” 

Her hand reached the back of her head as she saw the military-like Murota, already feeling distanced from the semi-experienced group. “Y-You too.” Immediately she saw an open seat and took it, as Murota had already began greeting more colleagues. Guess she could never let anyone feel unwelcomed, it was admirable, adorable, at the very least. She cringed at the sudden banging against a table. 

“Call to attention!” It was Nakanishi’s far too gentle voice. 

“As you may know, our Tsubaki group has been sent out already, a talented group, to defeat the first boss.” 

Cheers came from all corners. Kana looked proud herself. Looking around, there was nothing but respect in their eyes from what used to be unsure glances, disbelief in the younger group. 

“Now we, as a group, must discuss possible ways to save all of us, and to save our leaders as well. Iikubo-san.”

Harunan was popular, being that gamer and all, Ayumi herself almost screamed. Though sudden embarrassment flushed her face as she looked around, noticing suspicious glared such as Inaba’s, Inoue’s, the sharpness of Kanazawa’s. The Musume subleader set a large drawing sheet on the wall, with a prideful grin. 

“Firstly, I would like to point out that there ar—“

The doors opened in a loud, loud crash. 

“Shut it!” 

Yumeno’s voice, it held pain, shaking pain.  
A calm voice then joined it, yet the voice was ridden with trauma, intentional or not, it was frightening. 

“The first Tsubaki regiment is dead.” 

Cries and sobs had began to fill the room, Nakanishi and Iikubo stood shocked entirely. Ayumi was the same, shocked. Ogata Risa took her step forward, her mage gear was covered in blood, scrapes. Yumeno was missing a hand, it was bleeding rapidly to the ground. Medics like Nanami rushed to her aid. 

“We are being lied to, we are being sent to die like my precious groupmates simply because we are at the bottom of the food chain. Explain! Nakanishi!” Risa’s voice was dry, teary, her chords were probably torn from screaming. “I believe I will be the one to take leadership from here, I am the one with experience.” 

It was bloodcurling, the screams they could hear, imagine in their minds. The simple thought of the rest dying was enough to send shivers down Ayumi’s spine, was she next? Nakanishi was quiet, eyes were on her as she heard, notably Kobushi Factory members and Kenshuusei agreeing with Ogata. The older stayed silent, Kanazawa was nowhere to be seen, Takeuchi as well. The scene was tragic, with one meeting came one tragedy, resulting in two sides. 

“Now my comrades, will you side with me?”


	2. An Interesting Development

The next morning wasn’t exactly the best for the group. Most had ended up siding against Nakanishi just out of fear since Risa had supposedly survived the boss. Yet people didn’t exactly side with her, only the idea of her. 

Ayumi was walking around the square, listening to the bird’s song and the trees waving in the wind, until the guild boards had shown up. People were beginning to create guilds, some public, some private. Guilds had a maximum of 7, which nodded to one of the game’s rules. She saw icons of flags, some with animals, like bears and such. One such group had caught her attention though. She saw the brute and strong Kanazawa, fully decked in armor and a peculiar, tough axe on her back. It was huge, bigger than Erina and Yumeno’s, very strange. With her was the rest of the original Juice=Juice members, they were all stern, different from their usual playful and professional selves. She noticed a stone glistening in the sun on Uemura’s chest, her eyes were crimson like blood. Karin too, yet on the back of her hand, she had the cutest cat ears and tail. A pat on the back startled Ayumi from her thoughts. 

“Looking at the elite crew huh?” 

Mizuki, Murota, with fashioned goggles on her head and her hair tied up. Smile was so wide enough to believe she’d forgotten about the dead Tsubaki girls. She looked at Ayumi who was still in her basic attire, casually chuckling at her. Swiping her hand to open a menu with what was labeled Lancemaster Gear. 

“Got some on my hunts earlier this morning, can’t equip it obviously, I’m a mechanist after all!” Murota hit the present button on her screen with a wide grin. She felt so bright and comforting. “Juice over there has two beaststone users, Kanazawa-san already beat her legendary weapon quest, and Takagi-san has some pretty cool gauntlets. Almost as if they didn’t even sleep, took advantage of those anti-sleep potions selling for cheap at the alchemist shop.” 

A good talker, too much of a talker maybe, but Ayumi was the same. “Eh~ I have to wake up earlier then, it’s a bad habit of mine, the game is a bit too realistic for me so I’d rather be stuck in my dreams!” Mizuki laughed at how hard Ayumi was trying, to be honest it was concerning. She gave Ayumi a poke to the cheek. With that she was gone, Ayumi had never noticed her teleportation stone, she was left staring at the superior levels of the Juice=Juice members. They had guild tags too, knowing that she had good relations with them as an idol, she walked up to them. The four turned to her, and Ayumi was nervous to the bone.

“Oh! Ishida-chaaan!”

“Ara ara~ You need items?” 

“Oi, calm it, we gotta go beat that boss to a dead crisp, and when we get to that boss we’ll overkill it.” Tomoko snapped righteously at the rowdier two, Akari and Sayuki, as she stood on the farther side contrary to Ayumi. She saw the eyes of a tiger, filled with nothing but a thirst for revenge. “Rin, give her the extra potions, we’re off after this.” Ayumi looked over to Karin, who was very reserved, handing her a bag of small health potions, which of those she had none of, smiling weakly. It was as if she was scared. Akari and Sayuki looked as though they were reluctant to fight the boss so early, with Sayuki walking up to her for a hug. “Just in case I don’t make it out alive, ya know.” Tomoko looked rather infuriated, tugging the group off to the teleport zone. 

Ayumi looked down at the items herself, grinning from ear to ear. The town was bustling and to get away from it all she contacted Erina, finding her on the group map at the Guild Center. The building was hunched between the smithy and the alchemist’s, convenient location. It wasn’t as crowded as it was before. 

She switched the doorknob and walked inside the wooden abode, sword mantles and deer heads mounted on the walls, it was dim. She saw Erina at the counter on a select screen, the icon for the group was a dragon, it was a cool icon. Erina eventually noticed her and pushed her up to the screen, Ayumi began to read. 

“I’m the leader of the Guild?!” A shocker to Ayumi, Erina was the leader of the new Morning Musume without Fukumura, anyway. Yet she knew Erina, that without Mizuki she had no confidence, no pillar to lean on. She understood Erina, wordless, quiet, weirdly quiet, it wasn’t the same without Mizuki, wasn’t it? The select screen asked for the name, and the color too. Ayumi chose a sea blue and the name was up to Erina, she wanted to give Erina at least something to decide upon. Though Erina already caught on and typed in, “Leviathan.” Possibly it was what she had in mind intentionally, a beast of the ocean, like Ayumi. They together set on the adventure together, making sure not to forget Miki though not even bothering to contact Maachan since who knew where she could be now. Eventually the band of three found their way, levelling up quickly and moving through the Silver Forest. The monsters were mainly wolves, slimes, and plants. The deeper they went into the forest the more deadly plants they found. Ayumi and her naginata began to slow down out of fatigue, Miki’s sword was almost broken and needed repair. The group began to trudge, notable grunting from Miki. Erina notices, obviously, and moved to clear the area of monsters, setting down a campfire. The game was merciful, campfires warded off monsters and set their location on the area map in case they needed help. “There you go, Miki-tan, leveled good today.”

“Thank you, Ikuta-san, ah I was tired!” Miki shrugged with her awkward grin, it was nice to have her there. She had a pleasant atmosphere. The level above her head had gone higher, to level 14, herself at 14 as well, though Erina was at 16. “I saw you with the original Juice=Juice members, what levels were they?” 

She had to think back and recall, the nice yet scary elites of Hello!Project. Sayuki was level 22, close to the first boss capacity at level 30. It was impressive, maybe with no sleep at all she could make it. But she knew it would have drawbacks, they knew it too, yet their sheer determination to rescue Miyazaki was scary. It felt as if they were in complete unison, their feelings were the same almost. Yet here Morning Musume was, completely split. “Level 22, at least one of them, I suspect higher for the others though.” Miki looked blown away, physically as well since her stature was unusual and uncomfortable, she was sitting on a rock.

Erina and Ayumi say on a freshly cut log, Erina wouldn’t bother to close the gap between them. She was quiet. 

“How can we rescue Mizuki?”

The question struck the the two as desperate, longing. A look of grief was in their eyes, on their minds, Miki was skeptical and logical, however. Gratefully they had a good thinker on the team. “Maybe she could be held hostage in a boss room? It just reminds me of the situation where some of those AKB idols suddenly disappeared.” Despite the disturbing thought she saw Erina perk up in response, she was full of determination.

“Then let’s go, there’s no more time to waste here. More training!” Erina was gleeful, filled with the hope that she could see her beloved leader once again. The campfire was switched off, monsters, carnivorous plants, began to spawn again in large numbers. Monsters surrounded them, using vines to fence them off and force them to only run to one direction. The kept running away from the highly overpowered plants, which ran their fatigue bars extremely low, and became hopeless. A thud rumbled the ground as Miki tripped on a root, yet the plants were not to be seen. It was irregular. 

Ayumi skidded over to help the swordfighter up, she saw Miki’s stamina depleting rapidly, flashing a quick glare at Erina. “It’s getting dark, let’s just stay for enough time for stamina to recover.” The axe warrior nodded, almost crashing down to the ground. But she stood back up again, her eyes were disturbed. Stepping towards the nearby bush, she uncovered a severed arm. Miki squealed, Ayumi in disbelief.

“What the hell..” 

They looked into the clearing nearby to find a massacre. It was gory, she obviously had thought. There was a visible, severed head. It was the head of Tanimoto Ami. It was disgusting, revolting, Ayumi found herself in shock, she wanted to vomit. Erina continued to investigate and found the rest of the bodies, their wounds didn’t look like they came from plants. A crystal floated above Ami’s head, which was twisted with agony, it was yellow. Erina tapped on it to see the information of the killer. 

Kishimoto Yumeno. 

The boss wasn’t the killer, it was Yumeno. The kind girl with the eyes that reassured, the eyes of a hero. 

“Kishimoto-chan..?” Miki had lost her breath, she was hyperventilating, her eyes couldn’t handle any of it. Erina was grim, clenching her fist. Yet Ayumi was just shocked, only shocked. “Is this what she did? They did it to gain power?” 

“We have to get back and tell them!” Ayumi shouted, her eyes teary. It felt as if she was betrayed and stabbed like Kisora, slashed through like Kiki. She pulled out the last use of her teleport crystal, which she didn’t want to use but just for this one time, she used it. As soon as she made it to Town Square, a tear fell to the ground. Her hand rumbled slightly, curious, she pulled up her menu and found a mail with a picture of the evidence.

“Just in case.” — Eri

She couldn’t help but smile, running to the Town Mailbox immediately as Murota was there, leaning on it. The mechanic looked shocked to see Ayumi completely worn out. Her light armor was falling off. 

“Er, what’s the issue?” 

Ayumi said nothing but show her the image, which brought the same reaction. Just in one face she could see the full extent of betrayal. Murota took the image and sent it through the mailbox, sending it to every user possible. “There, we just have to expose the truth.” 

She heard the classic gasps, crying from some, aggression from most. Kishimoto nor Ogata weren’t in sight, people were already trying to chase after them. Until the Bar doors slammed open, nobody knew where Kishimoto was. She was clearly angry, that her secret was revealed, thinking that she had the perfect foil. Yumeno saw Ayumi and her worn look, pulling her axe from her back and running at her. Ayumi was quick to block, and that was when she realized she was trapped. Yumeno was only able to kill her groupmates in the first place by taking advantage of the duel feature. By attacking she initiated the duel, which set a field preventing intervention. Ayumi and Yumeno were alone in thoughts, crowds began to surround them, cheering Ayumi on. She was on the receiving end of vicious slashes of the great axe, suffering blows to the sides. Though she started to get the hang of it, Yumeno was a terrible murderer, she needed to end it. With her naginata she stabbed into Yumeno’s front and pushed her away from Ayumi, both circling around each other. 

“Why did you kill them?! They were your friends!” 

“In the new world friends mean nothing, it’s better to have nothing to lose!” 

Ayumi was enraged by the statement and blocked Yumeno’s incoming swing with the pole of her naginata. She continued to push forward until Yumeno stumbled back, allowing Ayumi to slash at her quickly and continuously until her health bar reached too low to continue the duel, cancelling it and leaving her health bar critically low. She saw the traitor hauled up and taken away by familiar faces, Hamaura and Nomura. Their faces were stricken with sadness. It was a striking moment, unification once again but only as a band of small groups into one. Like Hello!Project, just reshuffled. And it was then they felt united, but torn apart at the same time.

__

Initiating Boss One…

Magus of The Dark Forest, Yamagishi..

__


End file.
